Update from Qudus' blog

Aug 10, 2008

A tale of Nigeria's "FIRST FAMILY"

May these words that fiddles with my heart find its way out without overindulgence, may each word at which the tip of my finger secretes mean exactly what i mean, i look up to the heavens, perhaps i will neither want to sound too wise nor too foolish, at times when i think about my words they don't come out as i wish, other times when i write my words without thinking, they tend to match my exact thinking when i'm not writing .

15 months ago when our humble president, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was being sworn in as our newly 'demo-cratically selected' president, it did not in any way shook my harden hatred for politics which is the sole reason why i get so much interested in it, i wonder if this syndrome is a generational thing, anyone conversant with Fela's lyrics will agree with me that the two tyrant closest to Fela's mouth was Obasanjo and Yar'Adua, but in case some of us don't know, the Yar'Adua he refers to is not our humble president, that was his elder brother, that was the major reason why i became so much concerned by our new president. So as usual i quickly ran to make my research on this new angel that could be worst than our known devil that just left us in pieces. 

It was with mixed feelings i decided to start following his activities in order to build up my own idea of who he is, which will not be influenced by anything i might have read about him, his strategy of declaring his wealth on june 28, 2007 was a remarkable one for me, his stands against Soludo's naira re-denomination, the several Governors who served with him before 2007 were being charged by EFCC. And his stout clinging to the rule of law were altogether ringing positive bells in my head. As opposed to the time of his nomination where he was an obscure figure on the national stage, and a mere "puppet" of Obasanjo, a jeje man who could not have won the nomination under fair circumstances.

Few meters away from ASO ROCK, i bend down to pack a handful of sand, i walked two meters closer and watch the sand carefully slipped off my right palm, then i silently say to myself in a witty voice, "i'm in the process of modifying this sahara" my words are exacts and they are here like every other thing close to us, they can be criticized but a rose is rose and still a rose.

Not long after, revelation began to come to the space i occupy, i came across the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation's proposal to a project they were putting in place around 2003, check out the Board of Trustees 
H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), Chairman
H.E. Atiku Abubakar (GCON), Vice Chairman
H.E. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Trustee
Mr. Yomi Edu, Trustee etc.
Going through the proposal began to make me feel like going to toilet with what the budget looked like, and the whole list of individuals and capitalist Nigerians that was involved in the project.

Then i went on with my research, but now with a quite biased mind, brothers and sister, here are facts to my fears and skepticism for this "First family" driving our nation entity.
In 2000, during Yar' Adua's administration as governor in Katsina, Katsina became the fifth northern Nigerian state to adopt sharia, where a woman, was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery...
His father was briefly the National Vice chairman of the National Party of Nigeria.
Yar'Adua's daughter Zainab is married to Kebbi State governor Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari. Then i'm wondering is it really suppose to be a family heritage? Then the biggest shock. i present to you Musa (jrn) Yar'Adua

Shameful, shocking and sad, or how else can one describe it…? Just in case you were wondering if these pictures were taken from a Nollywood blockbuster, please open your eyes very well. Much more than one of the hottest reality TV shows around, these are real life of Musa (jnr) Yar’Adua, one of the youngest sons of the "First family" living life to the fullest right inside the Presidential Villa Aso Rock. In case you still doubt the possibility of such pictures.perhaps i need to draw your attention to the credibility of their source – Sahara Reporters (www.saharareporters.com). Musa is on facebook and these are his cool profile pictures.

When Mr Fix Nigeria wrote an article titled “Who Can Rescue This Rogue Republic?” some said, this guy has come again. The same sentiment was creatively captured by Tolu Ogunlesi in his parody titled “The Audacity of Kenya: An Obama Tale”, everyone replied 'this is hilarious' and when i wrote "Nigeria comment çava", some say why should i portray Nigeria's image in such manner. You see, Nigeria is a very interesting country. Just as you are optimistic about real change coming, you are taken aback by the emergence of one depressing scandal. Now, what can one make of this? A true picture of the Nigerian Dream? God forbid! But sadly enough, this happens to be the real picture of what is happening today in our society. 

Imagine this happening in Aso Rock, under the roof of our president, a man who has made so much effort to promote the principles of rule of law. But is this not a rule of lawlessness. What kind of example is the "First family" portraying to other Nigerian families? That these are the privileges of a member of the “First Family”? Are there even more revealing facts that we have not seen? Who knows? I doubt if Abacha’s sons would have conducted themselves like this at such a young and tender age. 

Today, our media personnel roar over the censorship bill that is about to be passed at the National Assembly, and i wonder, why the stress, even when we had the freedom to say whatever, what were we saying that is more than KOKOLET and YAHOOZEE? Where were the media when the president himself endorsed the Yahoozee track in Abuja, oh we have to wait for CNN or Oprah Winfery to talk about it so we can revolt and make rally over nothing. 


This is a country where poverty and hunger almost reign supreme. A country where thousands of people die of not having, And here, in Musa Yar’ Adua’s room in Aso Rock, is an unimaginable and flagrant display of our national cake. Why won’t we have armed robbers roaming Nigerian roads? Why won’t we have our young men doing Yahoo Yahoo? Why won’t we have militants kidnapping and blowing up oil wells? Or why won’t other politicians in government and their families, loot the treasury? and to borrow Idiare Atimomo's satire, "This Dam Will Soon Collapse". 
Again, I am just musing to myself...